NBA talks continue with touch of optimism

One down, two big issues to go for an agreement that would end the NBA lockout.

It may not happen this weekend, but players and owners both say they are working to get there soon enough that the season can start on time.

“All I’ll say is there was a sense of urgency in the room today,” NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said after the sides met for more than four hours Friday, according to The Associated Press.

“I think the sense today from both sides is we really need to push this weekend. Time is of the essence, and I don’t think there was any disagreement about that by both parties.”

All-Stars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant joined the players’ association executive committee for what president Derek Fisher called an “engaging” meeting with the owners’ labor relations committee.

Afterward, Commissioner David Stern indicated that the union will OK the owners’ plan for enhanced revenue sharing. However, the salary cap structure remains an obstacle, as does the division of revenues between the sides.

A person familiar with what happened during the meeting said the normally mild-mannered Wade angrily expressed frustrations with the process Friday, directing most of his comments toward Stern and saying he felt disrespected by the commissioner at one point during the meeting. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the sides agreed to keep details of the day’s dialogue private.

Players and owners will return Saturday morning and are committed to talking through the weekend, knowing additional cancellations are likely necessary next week if they’re not close to a deal. A week of preseason games have already been lost, and the Nov. 1 regular season opener would be in jeopardy without progress this weekend.

Some may have been made in regards to the league’s plan for enhanced revenue sharing among owners – which players had long argued as a way for the league to address its losses.

Stern emphatically denied that he would threaten to cancel the entire season this early even if things don’t go well this weekend. Still, he repeated that there would be danger in not making progress soon.

“Both sides agreed that the consequences of not making a deal lead us to the prospect of possibly at some point in the not distant future losing regular-season games,” Stern said. “And we agreed that once you start to lose them and the players lose paychecks and the owners lose money, then positions on both sides will harden and those are the enormous consequences that I referred to in terms of trying to make a deal.”

There were 21 players and 10 owners in the meeting. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Elton Brand, Baron Davis and Andre Iguodala were among the other players who stood behind Fisher at his news conference after the session.

“We feel it helps the process for our teams to hear directly from a lot of times their star players, their franchise players, the guys who mean the most to our game,” Fisher said.